Sunday, September 30, 2012

The government’s cost-cutting measures are paying off federally but
provinces, territories and cities are not doing so well, says Canada’s “budget
watchdog.”

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page said the Conservative
government’s cutbacks will lead to a sound financial position in the long-term.

Even though government revenues are projected to slow as expenses rise
for such things as health care and public pensions, most of the increased costs
have been shifted to the provinces and territories, he said.

The federal government’s “sustainable fiscal position” results from
recent action to limit health funding to the provinces, slashing program
expenses and increasing the age of eligibility for the “Old Age Security”
pension to 67 from 65 starting in 2023.

Over the next 20 years, current estimates indicate total government
sector debt as a percentage of gross domestic product will fall to 31.9 percent
from 53.5 percent, Page said.

One word of caution in his report was that overall debt for Canada’s
three levels of government is similar to the situation in some European
countries but remains many years away from becoming critical.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Tough measures by the Ontario government to deal with a soaring budget
deficit have led to a revolt by many school teachers whose pay has been frozen.

Now, the Liberal government of Dalton McGuinty plans to take similar
action for the highest-paid public service workers.

"These measures are necessary to help us meet our fiscal targets
and we're asking everyone to do their share," Finance Minister Dwight
Duncan said.

The enactment of the “Putting Students First” bill, which is being
challenged in court by teachers’ unions, has frozen their pay for two years, halved
their paid sick days to 10 a year and banned strikes and lockouts.

In
response, the unions called on their 136,000 members to refuse to take part in
any extracurricular activities, including the coaching of sports.

The top salary of a fully experienced Ontario teacher is about $95,000 a
year for 195 in-class days.

The government said the pay cap is needed to maintain full-day
kindergarten and smaller class sizes, and trim the $15-billion deficit.

A
proposed bill to limit wages of public workers would also include those
employed by government-funded agencies, boards, commissions, hospitals,
universities and colleges.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

The
federal government is stripping the Canadian citizenship of thousands of people
who have cheated the system.

“Canadian citizenship is not for sale,” Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney said, vowing to continue the Conservative government’s
crackdown against cheats.

Canada is revoking the status of 3,139 people for abusing the system in
order to receive citizenship, he said.

As
well, thousands more are being investigated on suspicions of fraudulently obtaining
or maintaining their permanent residence for citizenship purposes.

In
all, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is looking at the cases of about 11,000
people have been potentially implicated in lying to apply for citizenship or
resident status.

It’s a process that takes several years, Kenney said as critics suggest
his comments are upsetting to the majority of law-abiding immigrants.

Canada has removed or denied admittance to more than 600 former permanent
residents linked to fraud and denied about 500 citizenship applications for not
meeting residence requirements.

“We
will continue to take strong measures to combat the industry of crooked
immigration agents here and abroad who seek to devalue Canadian citizenship by
creating fake proof of residency and committing other forms of fraud,” Kenney
said.